Compensatory Control

Compensatory Control

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

The idea that a lowered sense of control pushes people toward sources of order such as patterns, superstitions or explanations with an author.

What it is

Jennifer Whitson and Adam Galinsky found that people made to feel a lack of control were more likely to see patterns in random material, including conspiracies. A later meta-analysis by Ana Stojanov and Jamin Halberstadt, covering experiments that lowered control and measured conspiracy belief, found an overall effect so small it could not be told apart from zero.

In effect

In the article on why people believe conspiracy theories, it is the original result set against the later work, which is why the article holds the idea loosely.

What it does not say

It is a hypothesis with mixed support. It does not say that feeling out of control causes conspiracy belief in any reliable way.

Sources

  1. Whitson, J. A., & Galinsky, A. D. (2008). Lacking control increases illusory pattern perception. Science, 322(5898), 115-117.
  2. Stojanov, A., & Halberstadt, J. (2020). Does lack of control lead to conspiracy beliefs? A meta-analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 50(5), 955-968.